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Indian Water Rights, Practical Reasoning, And Negotiated Settlements, Robert T. Anderson

Articles

This Article first reviews the few Indian water rights cases that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided. The Article then traces a threshold issue common to Indian water rights litigation in the federal and state courts: how to determine the purposes of a reservation for which a reserved water right should be implied. A review of major Indian water rights cases demonstrates the generally confusing state of the law in significant respects, especially with regard to the "purposes" determination.

This Article posits that the relative uncertainty in this area has created an environment in which creative, practical solutions to conflicts …